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As Earth's precious resources run low, some companies are looking skyward to replenish our planet's supply of rare metals and other key elements. Deep Space Industries plans to launch a fleet of small spacecraft in 2015 to scope out potential asteroid mining targets. These probes, called FireFlies, would return to Earth with samples.

This post The Space Business in Turmoil appeared first on Daily Reckoning.
Recently, Boeing, Lockheed, the U.S. Air Force and many others have been scrambling because Congress, in a fit of sudden awareness, passed the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015. It requires American-made rocket engines for military flights starting in 2019.

It will be one near-miss for man. But a new breed of space entrepreneurs hope it will presage one giant leap for mankind.
When Asteroid 2012-DA14 hurtles past Earth February 15 in what counts as the closest of cosmic calls, U.S. government scientists will be closely tracking its path from NASA’s observatory in the Californian desert.
Not least thanks to the attention of Hollywood, the world’s interest in asteroid fly-bys has until now been focused on the danger of a cataclysmic collision.

In October 2018, a 1,600ft-wide asteroid named Bennu will pass Earth, close enough for Nasa to land a spacecraft on it. Five years later, the craft will return to Earth carrying rock samples that could tell us exactly how planets are formed. But the mission, dubbed OSIRIS-REx, has another purpose: to lay the groundwork for the development of an asteroid-mining industry. Nasa has competition, though.

TORONTO — Depressed commodity prices aren’t stopping one mining company at PDAC from settings its sights high — beyond orbit, actually.
Planetary Resources, Inc. stands out among the companies at this year’s mining convention because its focus is extracting resources from asteroids. While the idea might some outlandish, the firm counts former NASA engineers among its ranks and is backed by some high profile investors, including Google co-founder Larry Page.

Deep Space Industries, a newly formed company, announced plans today, Jan. 22, to launch the world's first fleet of asteroid-hunting spacecraft to search for space rocks that can be harvested for precious metals and other resources.